One Night
by Empress Venus
Summary: May and Max are set to inherit their dead aunt's fortune, provided they stay one night at her house. Along with Ash and Brock, they are in for a very strange and scary night.


**One Night**

* * *

Since it's Halloween, I've written up a fun Halloween fanfic. Contains quite a few scares, and some parodying of random scary movies, but nothing too violent. It's just good, scary fun.

I do not own Pokémon and will make absolutely no money from writing this.

* * *

Ash had just gained his fifth badge after beating the fifth gym leader, who just so happened to be the father of his two travelling companions, May and Max. The three of them, along with the fourth group member, Brock, should have been setting off from Petalburg City and going to the next location right now. However, Norman and Caroline had an announcement to make to their children that they apparently couldn't simply have told them the day before or even before that. So, Ash, Brock, May and Max were all sitting at the table in the kitchen of the family home, looking curiously up at the two adults.

"Now, dears, do you remember your old Aunt Gladys?" Caroline asked, expectantly looking at her two children.

"Um... yeah, I remember her," May said, tapping her chin as she looked thoughtful. "She came to visit us two years ago, didn't she?"

"Wasn't she the nice lady who kept giving me candy?" Max asked, excitement creeping into her voice. "I really liked her. Is Aunt Gladys coming over here?" He sank back into his chair with a sigh. "It's too bad we're travelling right now, I wouldn't mind seeing her again."

"Actually, no," Norman said in a somber tone. "Your Aunt Gladys passed away a month ago."

"She's been dead for a month and you only tell them now?" Ash couldn't help speaking, incredulous as he was. "Uh, I mean... I'm sorry for your loss," he added, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"No, really." May looked at her parents in annoyance. "You couldn't just tell us this over the phone? It's sad that Aunt Gladys is dead, but you sat us down just to tell us that?"

"Actually, it just kept slipping our minds until the will came out," Norman explained. "You know how busy I am with the gym and your mother can be a bit of a scatterbrain sometimes." He gave a light hearted shrug. "Anyway, speaking of the will, the details were released today."

"So May and Max are in the will?" Brock guessed. "That sure was nice of her to put them in."

"What are we getting?" Max asked, his eyes wide with curiosity. May had her hands on the table and was leaning forward with an intent expression, looking very keen to hear the news.

"Well, you know that your aunt lived alone in a big, old house near Fallarbor Town, don't you?" Caroline asked. As the two nodded, she continued speaking. "She wishes for you two to inherit her entire fortune on one condition."

"Her entire fortune?" May and Max cried in unison, their eyes as wide as saucers.

"The condition is that you spend a night in that house," Norman explained. "I have to admit, the conditions sound a little strange, but it was your aunt's wishes so will you do it?"

"Can Brock and I stay with them?" Ash asked anxiously.

"Of course," Caroline replied. "As long as May and Max follow the conditions, they can have friends with them and do whatever they like there."

"Aren't the conditions a bit odd?" Brock crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow. "All May and Max have to do to get the money is stay in her house? There's got to be some kind of catch to this, right?"

Norman and Caroline threw each other awkward glances, their mouths stretching into suspiciously fake smiles as they returned their gazes to the people sitting at the table.

"There's no catch," Norman insisted, his voice sounding slightly strained. "Why would there be a catch?"

"I'm sure Aunt Gladys just wanted you have some fun in her house," Caroline said, giggling awkwardly. "After all, the last time we were there, May was only a baby and Max wasn't even born yet. You two deserve to have some memories of her house."

"It sounds like it must be a really great house," Ash commented. "Man, now I can't wait to go and check it out. You two want to go and stay there as soon as possible, don't you?" he asked, looking expectantly at the siblings.

"Why does it seem like Mom and Dad are hiding something?" Max muttered, a suspicious frown plastered on his face.

"Let's go straight away!" May declared enthusiastically. "All we have to do is stay one night and we'll get a lot of money. I'll buy some nice things with it and go out to fancy restaurants." She clasped her hands together, eyes sparkling in rapture.

Max sighed and rested his chin on one hand, looking exasperated. Clearly, May was going to take all the money and spend it on food which meant there would be none left for him. He wasn't even sure what he would buy with so much money yet. "How did Aunt Gladys die?" he asked, looking questioningly at his parents.

"Heart attack," Caroline said.

"Tripped and fell down the stairs," Norman said at the same time. The couple flinched and looked at each other in panic. "That is, to say..." the gym leader said quickly, "She had a heart attack at the top of the stairs and fell down."

"Her heart attack was completely natural, I'm sure," Caroline said airily, waving a hand.

"Well, why wouldn't it be natural?" Ash asked in confusion.

"You know what, I'm sure you're in a great hurry to leave now, aren't you?" Norman said hastily. "We really shouldn't be keeping you for much longer. How about you go now and have fun at Aunt Glady's house? I promise you will love it."

"Yeah! Let's go!" May said excitedly, pulling Max out of his chair despite his complaints. "We don't have any time to waste. All those expensive restaurants are waiting for me!"

"Hey, wait for me..." Brock followed after May, Max and Ash as they quickly exited the kitchen.

As the house's front door opened and slammed shut, Norman and Caroline let out huge sighs of relief.

"You think we should have told them the truth?" Caroline asked.

"It wouldn't have been a good idea. After all, who would willingly spend the night in a haunted house?" Norman shook his head. "Gladys did always complain about those ghosts. I think her poor heart just couldn't take it anymore. The kids will be fine, they are young and they have probably seen stranger things than a few ghosts by now."

Ash, Brock, May and Max were already on the road leading out of Petalburg, hoping to reach Fallarbor Town as soon as they could.

"Don't you think they were acting a bit strange?" Brock asked, looking worried. "I mean, they couldn't seem to decide if Gladys had died of a heart attack or falling down the stairs, and then there was that thing about natural heart attacks. It sounded odd to me."

"I'm sure there's a completely normal explanation for it." May smiled confidently. "There is absolutely nothing to worry about. We are going to stay at Aunt Glady's house and get that money so I can get my food. It's going to be so much fun. Aren't you excited, Max?"

"I guess I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous," Max admitted. "It felt like there was something they weren't telling us."

"What's the big deal anyway?" Ash asked, looking completely nonplussed. "We're just going to spend a night in a house, that's all. May's right, it's going to be fine, you guys."

"Pika!" Pikachu agreed.

"Well, if you say so," Brock said finally in resignation. "If we travel quickly enough, we should reach Fallarbor Town in a couple of days and then we'll look for the house from there."

They should have reached Fallarbor Town in a couple of days. However, a little boy named Cody wanted their help in catching a Poliwag, and Team Rocket tried to steal it. This somehow took up a whole day. Then there was a debacle in a small village nearby when little Timmy fell down the well and Ash and company just had to help them out. On the third day, they encountered a couple with some completely trivial problem involving a Dustox and Beautifly that could have been easily ignored. Team Rocket's constant, random attacks definitely didn't help the group's progress either.

Two weeks later, the weary group entered Fallarbor Town, wondering why they had taken so long to even get there.

"Please, help me!" A random boy, who appeared to be the same age as Ash and May, ran up to them. "My name is Jeremy and I demand that you help me find my lost Rattata, so waste your entire day helping me to find it!"

"Okay-" Ash began, but May promptly slammed a hand over his mouth, cutting him off in mid-sentence.

"Look here!" May exclaimed in annoyance, giving Jeremy a cross look. "We took two weeks to get here and we're not wasting any more time helping random characters we've never met before, so why don't you ask someone else for help or just do it yourself?"

"Holy Miltank." Max blinked in surprise. "We should have just been doing that from the start."

"You're mean!" Jeremy burst into tears and ran away crying. Everyone except Ash sighed in relief as the potential Character of the Day was driven off.

"I feel kind of bad for him." Ash crossed his arms, frowning slightly.

"We should go and find that house now," Brock said. "Let's ask for directions."

Eventually, they were sent to a road leading to the far north. At one point, the road branched off into a narrow path surrounded by foliage. It was up this path that Gladys' house was located, nestled among a bunch of trees. There was a small garden at the front of the house which had clearly seen better days, as it was now overgrown with weeds. The house itself looked slightly worn down and in need of repair. A man lay in a sleeping bag next to a tent, a pot of coffee brewing over a small campfire.

"Excuse me?" Max poked the sleeping bag in an effort to rouse the man. "Why are you sleeping out here?"

The man jolted into an awake state, staring in confusion at the four young people. He rubbed his eyes and put on his spectacles, blinking sleepily. "Uh..." His gaze fell upon May and he started. "You wouldn't happen to be May from Petalburg City, would you?"

"That's right," May replied. She gestured at Max. "This is my brother, Max, and these two are my friends, Ash and Brock."

"It's about time!" the man snapped in annoyance, jumping out of his sleeping bag and rolling it up. In record time, he had packed the tent, sleeping bag and coffee pot into his bag. The man then handed May a bunch of keys. "I am Gladys' solicitor and I was told you were on your way here two weeks ago. I've been waiting here the whole time for you to turn up. I'll be back tomorrow with the money, so long as you follow the conditions." He tore off down the path before anyone could say anything.

"That poor man. He was waiting for us the whole time?" May looked sympathetic.

"Yeah, well, we all know who to blame, don't we?" Max pushed his glasses up his nose and they glinted.

"Are you talking about me?" Ash asked suspiciously. "All those people needed our help, you know. We couldn't just ignore them."

"How come that man was camping outside? Couldn't he just have stayed inside the house?" Brock frowned in confusion.

"Who cares? Maybe he just didn't want to be intruding. It's not his house after all." May ran up to the front door and hastily unlocked it, grinning. "Alright! This is going to be fun."

The quartet stepped into the house, finding it to be quite cold inside. Obviously, the heating had not been turned on in a while. Ash located the light switch as he fumbled against the wall and flicked it on. The foyer was illuminated in a weak light from the lone bulb glowing dimly as it hanged from the ceiling. A thick layer of dust seemed to cover everything and cobwebs could be seen in every corner. It was clear nobody had bothered to come and clean this house after Gladys had died.

It seemed like a perfectly normal house on the inside and would have been quite nice if it wasn't for the dust and cobwebs everywhere. After turning on the heating and waiting for the house to warm up, Brock decided to do some cleaning, so Ash, May and Max were free to find things to do around the house while he did the necessary chores.

"I'm going back upstairs," May said, looking around shiftily. "I'd like to be alone, so you two just do whatever you want. See you in a while." She hurried up the stairs, leaving them quite confused.

"Uh... I think I saw a TV," Max said after a moment of silence. "We could watch it."

"Sure," Ash replied. They found the lounge again, which was well furnished with comfortable armchairs and a sofa. The TV was still working much to their relief, and their attention turned to the VCR and the stack of tapes piled up by the television.

"Eh, I've never heard of any of these movies," Max sighed, as he looked at the labels on the tapes. "Eternal Sunflora of the Spotless Mind. The Full Mantine. Lord of the Ursarings. Seriously, who names these movies? They aren't very good at it."

"Hmm, yeah. This one says Psyduck... wonder if it's about a Psyduck?" Ash joined in on reading the labels. "Citizen Kangaskhan, Kill Marill... wow, that sounds really violent. Why would someone kill a Marill?"

"Yeah, that's just weird." Max raised an eyebrow. "Clefairy Poppins, Pidgey Run, Staryu Wars... they all just sound like they are supposed to be terrible puns."

"Hey, what's this?" Ash noticed a tape sitting underneath another one labelled 'Arboks on a Plane'. This one was interesting, in that it lacked a label. He hurriedly pulled it out from the pile and examined it. "This one hasn't got a label on it."

"Really?" Max asked eagerly, taking the tape from Ash and looking at it curiously. "Maybe we should check this out then." He wasted no time in slipping the tape into the VCR and hitting Play.

Ash and Max sat back on a pair of beanbags, closely watching the screen as the video began playing. Flickering white letters appeared against the black screen.

"WATCH THIS TAPE TO THE END," the words said. "UNLESS YOU WISH TO SUFFER A TERRIBLE FATE."

"Eh?" Max's eyes widened. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"Someone's got a strange sense of humour," Ash commented.

The text faded away and the video changed to a smoke ring. Blurry text passed over the smoke ring, warning them of the dangers of smoking and making it quite clear that it would kill them. The picture changed to a picture of a skeleton with a pipe stuck in their mouth, lying sprawled out on the floor.

"Yikes," Max whimpered. "I don't think I want to watch this anymore."

"Oh, come on, Max, it just got started," Ash protested. "Besides, you don't want to suffer a terrible fate, do you?" Max shook his head furiously.

The scene then switched to an evil looking Togepi with glowing red eyes that walked up to the screen until it had filled up the whole thing. It then began to roar with maniacal laughter, and the camera panned out to reveal dozens of Togepi spreading out over what appeared to be the world.

"Togepi's evil?" Ash's jaw dropped in shock. "I knew it."

Next, they saw a Jynx staring into a mirror while slowly brushing its hair. The scene flickered and turned upside down for a few seconds, before changing to a chair doing a tap dance around the room. The chair eventually stopped and morphed into a Ditto, smiling dumbly at the camera.

"I feel like my life is being wasted," Max groaned, curling up in despair yet keeping his eyes on the tape. He really did not want to suffer a terrible fate.

Mt. Chimney was shown exploding, the sky filled with soot and lava showers. A Slowpoke gazed at the camera and yawned for exactly five minutes of the tape's running time. Then dozens of Exeggutor and Oddish slowly marched past, chanting their names every ten seconds. This lasted for ten minutes. Ash and Max were now struggling to not fall asleep from boredom. Even more Pokémon frolicked around, reciting their names. Finally, the long ordeal came to an end and the scene suddenly changed to a Golbat, staring straight at them with wide eyes and a long, slobbering tongue.

"Wah!" Ash and Max grabbed each other in shock, startled by the horrifying sight before them. Luckily, the Golbat disappeared and the screen went black.

New words appeared. 'CONGRATULATIONS. NOW YOU ONLY HAVE SEVEN DAYS TO LIVE.'

They screamed.

"What are you screaming for?" Brock walked into the room a few seconds later. "What's wrong?"

"The... the tape!" Ash pointed at the TV, looking tearful.

"Wait... it's changing again..." Max whimpered, shaking in fear.

'JUST KIDDING.'

"Uh... okay then." Brock gave them a very confused look. "Well, I'm almost done with the cleaning and..." He was broken off by the sound of the phone ringing.

Ash and Max stared at the phone nervously. There was no reason to be nervous, but after watching that strange tape, they couldn't help feeling a little paranoid.

"Who could be ringing this place?" Brock picked up the phone and listened. "Huh, what's my favourite scary movie? I think you have the wrong number." He hung up, shaking his head. "Prank caller, probably. Anyway, after I'm done cleaning, I'll start making lunch."

"That tape sure was scary," Max said quietly after Brock had left. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight."

"Why did your aunt have such a dumb tape lying around anyway?" Ash removed the tape and threw it aside in disgust. "She must have had weird taste in movies."

Since they had no desire to watch any more tapes after that encounter, they decided to go and see what May was up to.

"Ahh!" May was not so impressed when the two walked right into the bedroom where she was. "You could at least knock before you come in!"

"It's not like we knew which room you were in." Max glanced at the bed which was piled with dresses and then at his sister, who was hastily zipping up a thin black dress with straps that looked a little too large for her. "Uh, just what do you think you are doing?"

"Well, that closet over there was full of nice dresses," May said sheepishly, glancing at the large closet. "I wanted to try them on."

"You had better put them back when you're done," Max said in a scolding tone. "We're inheriting money, not clothes."

"Aww... can't I keep even one?" May looked disappointed. "I mean, they look so nice..."

"I'm going to have another look around," Ash said before the siblings could get into an argument. "There's got to be other stuff to do in this house. Let's go look, Pikachu." He left the room, seeking out the next bedroom. This one was smaller and didn't seem to have much stuff in it.

"Huh," Ash said in a bored tone as he found the cupboard empty. Even the drawers were empty. "There's nothing good in here. I don't understand what's supposed to be so great about this house at all." He walked over to sit on the bed in exasperation, Pikachu jumping up next to him. "Why did May and Max's aunt want them to stay here so badly?"

"Tell me about it," said a deep, male voice. "I don't know why anyone would want to stay in this hovel. I sure as heck don't like being here."

Ash jumped off the bed, turning around in surprise to see a balding man wearing a suit step out from behind the long curtains covering the window. The man gazed at him with piercing blue eyes, his mouth turned down in disapproval.

"Pikaaaaa!" The hair on Pikachu's back stood up and he tore out of the room at a surprisingly fast pace.

"Hey, Pikachu!" Ash looked toward the open door in surprise, wondering why Pikachu had reacted like that. He turned back to look at the man. "That's strange, Pikachu doesn't normally act like that around strangers. Anyway, I thought nobody was living here. Who are you?"

The man's expression changed to one of sheer disbelief and he let out a long, exaggerated sigh. "Well, you are correct, nobody has been living here as of a month ago. This house was nice and quiet until you annoying children came trampling in here and disturbing the peace."

"Okay, so who are you then?" Ash narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Oh... wait, I know, you must be a homeless person and you broke into this empty house, right? Well, this house belonged to my friends' aunt and I don't think their family would be very happy with you doing this. Isn't there somewhere else you could stay?"

"Oh, for crying out loud." The man slapped his forehead, letting out a snort of disgust. "I am a ghost. A freaking ghost! Can you honestly not see it?" He waved his arms in desperation. Wasn't the fact he was semi-transparent enough of a clue?

Ash gave the man a blank stare for about half a minute, comprehending what he had just said, then chuckled. "Hah, very funny. You don't really expect me to believe you're a ghost, do you?"

The ghost let out an annoyed groan, gritting his teeth. "Well, fine," he snapped. "You know what, kid? I bet you couldn't knock me over."

"Eh?" Ash blinked in confusion.

"Come on." The man patted his stomach, smiling deviously. "I've got a stomach like iron. Just try and take me down. Give it all you got."

"You want me to... tackle you?" Ash raised an eyebrow. "Why would you want me to do that?"

"A weak, puny and pathetic little shrimp like you couldn't even make me take a step back." The man threw back his head and roared with laughter.

"What did you say?" Ash frowned, looking quite displeased. The man was obviously insulting him and he didn't like it.

"Oh, do you want to prove me wrong?" The man grinned at him. "Go ahead and try it, shrimp."

"Ugh... fine!" Ash ran at the ghost, aiming to tackle him as hard as he could. Who did that man think he was, insulting him like that? Instead of meeting with the man's body however, he went right through and crashed into the wall. "Yikes!"

"Now do you believe me?" The man grinned, turning around and looking at Ash who was kneeling on the floor and rubbing his head. "The fact that you can see right through me kind of should have been a hint."

"You did that on purpose." Ash pouted, getting to his feet. "You didn't have to be such a jerk."

The ghost just smirked and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Uh... okay then." Ash rubbed his arms, looking around nervously. "Maybe it was just a Gastly... like the one at Maiden's Peak..." he muttered, trying to reassure himself.

"Ash, what was that noise?" May asked as she and Max came running over.

"Er, I ran into the wall," Ash said sheepishly, turning to look at them with an awkward grin. "It wasn't my fault though. The ghost made me do it."

May and Max stared at him, then exchanged dubious glances. Obviously, they did not believe his story.

"Very funny, Ash," Max said in annoyance. "How can you make stupid jokes after we saw that scary tape?"

"Yeah, that's just ridiculous. There aren't any ghosts here," May added, though she did rub her arms and look around nervously. "I'm sure Aunt Gladys wouldn't have made us stay in a house that had ghosts in it."

Ash was about to protest, then decided against it. There was no point in making them scared. For all he knew, it really had just been a talking ghost Pokémon pretending to be a human. That was possible, wasn't it? "Never mind," he said with a sigh, walking past them and out of the room. "I wonder where Pikachu went to."

Soon, lunch was ready and everyone sat around the table, enjoying Brock's delicious cooking. No further incidents happened while they were in the house and they made it to the evening without any further scares. What they didn't realise was that the best stuff always happened at night, and after dinner, they were all relaxed and looking forward to a peaceful night. May was especially excited, thinking of all the best restaurants she could go to. Max still hadn't decided what he was going to do with the money he had got and was afraid it would all have been spent on food by the time he made his mind up anyway.

As the evening went on, Ash was watching a Pokémon match on television, Brock was checking his inventory in the kitchen and making a shopping list for the next time they went out, Max was quietly reading in his room and May was in the shower.

May somehow did not hear the door quietly opening as she stood underneath the soothing cascade of hot water, running her hands through her soaked hair and rinsing out the shampoo. Then, as she opened her eyes, she noticed a shadowy figure looming before the shower door. This person, however, was much shorter than one would expect, only being around her height. May screamed in shock, not having expected anyone to have the nerve to enter the bathroom while she was showering.

The intruder, who was wearing a black robe and a white mask with distorted features, wrenched open the door and raised a gleaming knife. A bar of soap smacked him squarely in the mask, followed by a bottle of shampoo.

"Get out of here!" May screamed, reaching for the shower nozzle and wrenching it off the hook. "You might think you're funny, but you're not, Ash!"

The robed person flinched in shock as the shower nozzle rammed into his skull and dropped the knife, turning and fleeing from the bathroom.

"Geez!" May said huffily, her face bright red. She reached for a towel, looking quite irate.

"May, what's wrong?" Max stepped through the bathroom door, Ash and Brock soon joining him as they had also heard the scream.

"What's wrong?" May yelled at them, pulling the towel tighter around herself. "What's wrong is that I can't even take a shower in peace because some people think it's funny to go around playing stupid practical jokes!"

Ash, Brock and Max looked at each other in consternation. They were all quite unaware of any practical jokes having been played.

"Who was playing practical jokes?" Ash asked.

"It sure wasn't me," Brock said.

"Me neither," Max added.

"What are you talking about?" May snapped, looking accusingly at Ash. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"Excuse me?" Ash looked shocked. "I had better things to do than playing practical jokes. I was just watching a match on TV."

"Well, if it wasn't you, then who was it?" May countered. "That person was the same height as you."

"It couldn't have been Ash," Brock jumped in. "He came running upstairs at the same time as me."

"Exactly!" Ash crossed his arms. "So it was obviously somebody else."

"What happened anyway?" Max asked, looking concerned.

"Well, I was in the shower and then somebody wearing a robe and a mask comes right up and opens the door," May explained. "I hit them until they ran away." She looked down at the knife on the floor. "Oh yeah, and they had a knife."

"Uh... well, that's very strange," Brock commented. "Sure hope they weren't thinking of using it."

"Better hold onto it just in case," Ash said, picking up the knife. "Hope they didn't have any other knives."

"Okay." Max's face was pale. "Now can we be freaked out about the fact there's a potential killer around the house?"

"Can we do that after I get dressed?" May asked impatiently.

Luckily for everyone, the mysterious intruder was apparently willing to wait until May wasn't wearing only a towel and now that they were ready, they proceeded to start a search of the house. However, the potential killer did not appear to be upstairs or downstairs, which left just two options. He had either fled outside or was hiding in the attic. The trapdoor to the attic was located at the far end of the landing, a good distance away from the stairs, and the ladder was already down, which meant they could have easily gone up there.

"I don't want to go up there," Max said nervously as they looked up at the hole in the ceiling in trepidation.

"It's okay, Max, we can stay down here," Brock assured him.

"I'll go up," Ash said confidently, taking hold of the ladder. "I'll find out whoever it is and put an end to all this."

"Be careful, Ash," May said nervously as Ash began to climb up the ladder. "You don't know what's up there." She watched him disappear into the darkness and sighed. "Hope we don't end up having to spend that money on funerals."

"That's if we even live to use it," Max said in a flat tone.

"Now, don't be so morbid, you two. I'm sure we'll be absolutely fine," Brock said in an utterly unconvincing tone. The fact they rarely ever had to deal with potential murderers... actually, never, didn't help their enthusiasm any.

Ash looked around the dark and gloomy attic, backing away toward the wall and fumbling against it. He located the switch and to his relief, the attic was flooded with light. Finding a killer without getting killed would be much easier in a well lit environment after all.

"Are you there?" Ash called out, walking through the attic and checking a clothes rack displaying moth-eaten coats. There was nothing hiding among the coats however. "Uh... crazy killer person?" he called out again.

The attic was eerily silent. Being up here and knowing he might not be alone gave him the shivers. Ash cautiously walked around a dusty table, where a typewriter sat, and briefly looked under it. Nothing there. There weren't very many places to hide up here and he was beginning to think he was alone after all. "I guess the killer fled," he said, turning around and looking at Pikachu. "Let's go back down and tell them."

"Pikachu..." Pikachu looked up at Ash and flinched in shock. "Pika!" he cried, frantically pointing up.

Ash looked up just in time to see the robed figure jump down from the overhead rafters. He yelled in shock and ran until he was a safe distance away, turning around to look at the person. "Hah, nice try," Ash said, though his voice sounded slightly shaky. "Gave me a little surprise there."

The killer just stared at him, then waved his arms over his head menacingly.

"Well, you got any tricks up your sleeve?" Ash asked smugly. "I don't think there's anything you can do now. After all, I've got your knife." He took the knife from his pocket and pointed it at the robed person.

The would be killer glanced aside, catching sight of a finely decorated katana on a stand. He nimbly dashed over and grabbed it, pointing it threateningly at Ash.

"Well, _crap_." Ash grabbed Pikachu and ran, diving behind a couple of boxes. He looked up to see the sword swinging over his head and ducked again. "Okay, Pikachu, I've obviously got the disadvantage here so you'll have to go out there and use Thunderbolt. Do it!"

Pikachu tentatively stepped out, looking up at the masked figure swinging the sword crazily over his head. The freaked out mouse Pokémon let off a fierce shock that hit him straight on and sent him crashing to the floor, twitching erratically.

"Not bad, Pikachu," Ash said, quickly stepping out and taking the sword away. He pointed it at the cringing stranger. "Now, you're going to nicely go down that ladder, apologise to May, tell us who the heck you are and then stop trying to kill us. Is that clear?"

The person just nodded shakily, letting out a small whimper.

May, Max and Brock stepped back from the ladder, watching in surprise as a robed person wearing a mask came down. For a would be killer, he was shaking a lot and seemed quite afraid.

"That's the person alright," May said, putting her hands on her hips and looking furiously at him. "You creepy pervert."

At that moment, the mysterious person tried to make a run for it. However, Max was quicker and stuck out his foot, tripping him up and causing him to crash to the floor. "Knew they would do that."

"What kind of person keeps a sword in their attic?" Ash came down the ladder. "How am I supposed to scare somebody with a knife when they have an even bigger sword?"

"Well, whatever your plan was, it obviously worked." Brock walked over to the stranger, nudging him over on his back. "Time to unmask him."

The mask was ripped off. Ash, May, Brock and Max all peered closely to see the person's face and gasped in shock when they realised it was a familiar face that they had seen before.

"It's that guy we saw this morning." Max looked closely. "Definitely looks like him."

"Yeah, that's Jeremy, the boy who wanted us to find his Rattata." Ash looked shocked. "But... why? Why were you doing this?"

"Is it because I yelled at him?" May asked in a sheepish voice, looking guilty as she pressed her fingers together.

"I wanted you people to help me find my precious Rattata!" Jeremy exclaimed, sitting up and looking furious. "But because you all can't be bothered to waste your obviously important time helping some person you've never even met before and that girl was mean, I decided to get my revenge."

"So this is why we shouldn't ignore Characters of the Day?" Brock asked. "Because they will try to kill us if we do?"

"You see, I knew we should have helped him!" Ash turned to look at his friends. "All he wanted was for us to find his Rattata. Even if it took us all day and we ended up wasting yet another day we could have spent actually getting here, we should have done it because it was the right thing to do."

"It's not like we knew he was going to go crazy and try to kill us!" May retorted. "How often does anyone try to kill us anyway?"

"Okay, okay," Max said quickly, trying to calm them down. "Now what do we do with Jeremy?"

"Are you sure that's a wise thing to do?" Brock asked five minutes later as he watched Ash shut and lock the basement door. "It's practically kidnapping." If someone happened to come by and find the kid tied up and shut in the basement, they would certainly think it was kidnapping.

"Well, I wanted to go and help him find his Rattata, but it's too dark for that, so we'll just have to lock him in," Ash said. "He might try to kill us again."

"I'm sure his Rattata is fine," May groaned, holding her forehead. "Can't we just forget about it?"

"You know, I'm thinking someone should lock all the doors," Max said, rubbing his chin. "Just in case there are any more homicidal killers coming to get us."

"Too late for that," said a deep voice from the doorway. The quartet turned around in shock to see a man wearing a puffy jacket and a hockey mask. His most important feature however was that he was holding a chainsaw in his hands.

"Oh, for crying out..." Brock started.

"Max..." May hissed through clenched teeth.

"Hey, don't blame me for this, sis." Max shot an annoyed look at her.

"Uh..." Ash looked at the man holding the chainsaw. "Just out of curiosity, are you thinking of using that chainsaw to maybe kill us?"

"Well, yes." The man gave him an incredulous look. "I wasn't planning on cutting down trees with it."

"So what do you use it for when you aren't using it to kill people then?" Ash asked.

"More importantly," Brock interrupted, "who are you and why are you trying to murder us?"

"Well, my son said you wouldn't help him find his Rattata and he wanted you all to pay for it," said the man. He started up his chainsaw and it started whirring. "Now can you all start screaming in terror please?"

"Pikachu. Thunder," Ash said in a monotonous voice, looking as if he was about to fall over asleep. This whole crazy killer routine was getting tiring already.

Jeremy's father screamed in pain as he felt the electricity coursing through his body. He dropped the chainsaw, which fell to the floor with a loud crash, and collapsed into unconsciousness. Moments later, he was tied up and thrown down the basement stairs. The door was locked again and everyone sighed in relief.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

"I swear, if that's another psychotic killer..." Ash muttered under his breath, hurrying to the front door and opening it.

An old lady and old man with extraordinarily youthful looking skin stood on the doorstep. The woman had blue eyes and green earrings, while the man had green eyes. Of course, they didn't look vaguely familiar to Ash, who was notoriously terrible at spotting disguises. He didn't even notice the feline like midget standing between them.

"How can I help you?" Ash asked. May came up behind him, looking at the old couple nervously.

"It's awful. We're out in the middle of nowhere and our car goes and breaks down, and it's so dark, we can't make it to the next town at this time of night," said the woman, dabbing her eyes.

"Would you kind souls be willing to lend us a room for the night?" asked the man.

"You aren't psychopaths or murderers?" May asked nervously.

"No, just Pokémon thieves," The midget spoke. He froze, clapping a hand to his mouth. "Oops."

"Team Rocket, we're really not in the mood for your stupid tricks right now," Ash snapped. "Why don't you come back tomorrow?" He slammed the door in their faces and locked it. "I'd take them over crazy killers any day though."

Team Rocket stared in stunned disbelief at the locked door then removed their disguises, looking defeated.

"Way to go, Meowth!" Jessie yelled. "You really screwed that one up."

"I think Jessie might be a psychopath," James mumbled. Unfortunately for him, Jessie overheard and proceeded to sock him in the face, shouting angrily. "See?" He clutched himself, looking pained.

"It was a lame plan anyway," Meowth said defensively. "We just gotta think of a better one. Or we could sleep on it. The twerp said we could come back tomorrow, so why not?"

Unfortunately for them, as they walked away, they happened to step on a mine which exploded and sent them blasting away into the sky.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

Luckily for the twerps, it meant they wouldn't be getting blasted off the moment they left the house. Psychopathic killers sometimes had backup plans after all, though just planting a single mine in a random spot wasn't the best idea.

It was getting late so Ash, Brock, May and Max set about getting ready for bed. Max was the last one to use the bathroom. He had just finished brushing his teeth when he suddenly got the strange feeling that he was being watched. Max slowly turned around and looked toward the bath.

The young boy was immediately frozen to the spot in terror, his eyes turning as wide as saucers as he saw a naked woman rise from the bath. That definitely was not ketchup covering her body, he knew that much. The woman stepped out and advanced toward him, smiling creepily.

"Max, where are you and why aren't you in bed yet?" May came into the bathroom, looking cross. She looked down at Max, who was lying half-dead on the floor, and blinked in consternation.

Ash and Brock were talking in their room when May burst in, dragging Max along behind her and giving them quite a start.

"Do you think this is funny?" May screamed. "Just because Max can be annoying and bratty sometimes is no good reason to go choking him!"

"Uh..." Ash blinked at her. "What?"

"Ash." Brock looked at him disapprovingly. "I know people can get on your nerves sometimes, but..."

"Hey, wait, wait." Ash jumped to his feet. "What are you talking about?" He looked at Max's unconscious form in disbelief. "Okay, seriously, he's a pest and he tried to steal my gym badge and he made fun for me for losing at the Johto League, but I wouldn't hurt him, for Mew's sake!"

"Then who did it?" May snapped. "Far as I know, you're probably the most likely... what are you looking at me like that for?"

"M-maybe... it was her..." Ash pointed at the door, his face turning pale.

May slowly looked over her shoulder and screamed. At that moment, Max awoke and he screamed as well. They ran behind Ash and clung to him in fear.

"That's... that's..." Max whimpered.

"Why is she covered in blood?" May shivered voiolently.

"Uh..." Ash backed away with them, not sure what to do. It was hard to think rationally when you were looking at a zombie. "Pikachu...?"

Pikachu was cowering under one of the beds and therefore no help whatsoever.

Brock stood up and looked at the corpse thoughtfully. "If she wasn't covered in blood and decaying, I think she would be pretty hot." Ash, May and Max shot him extremely disturbed looks. "Whoops, did I say that out loud?"

"Now, now, Meredith, you can't just go terrorizing the annoying children." The ghost Ash had seen earlier before floated through the wall, giving them quite a shock, and went to take Meredith by the arm. "I'm sure they will be out of our hair soon and we can have our peace and quiet back." He glanced at the four with an apologetic expression. "She didn't take too kindly to getting murdered in the bath. Gladys was pretty mad about me having a mistress."

Ash and friends stared in disbelief as the two ghosts walked back through the wall, leaving them alone in the room.

"That... that was Aunt Gladys' first husband... I saw him in the photo album..." May said shakily. "She had three husbands, who all died of unnatural causes strangely enough."

"It would seem some people definitely weren't glad to have met Gladys," Brock quipped.

"You're not funny." May whimpered. "Let's get out of this house."

"I agree." Max clung to her, shivering. "I don't want to sleep in this scary place."

"But what about the money?" Ash asked. A long silence followed. "I think we found the catch."

Eventually, they decided that the money was probably worth the stay and the ghosts probably weren't too dangerous. Probably being the key word there. If Gladys had lived in the house with those ghosts for most of her life, one night wasn't really a big deal. It still didn't make sleeping any easier though.

In the middle of the night, Ash woke up to find an unfamiliar male ghost staring at him. He sleepily sat up and rubbed his eyes, blinking at the ghost. "Huh...?"

"Your friends, they do not treat you so nice." The man clicked his tongue. "That girl, she accuse you of everything, from the shower incident to hurting her brother. Even though you are innocent. It is not so nice at all, is it?"

"Um... not really..." Ash mumbled sleepily.

"It is not right to accuse you like that. You should correct her if you don't mind my saying so," the man continued. "And the boy, he really steal your badge and tease you about losing? You must find him annoying at times, yes?"

"Well... yeah..." Ash blinked rapidly, struggling to stay awake.

"In that case, you should also correct him if you don't mind my saying so..." The man broke off as he noticed that Ash was now fast asleep again, snoring in the process. "So much for sending him on a bloody rampage."

"Redrum," Ash mumbled in his sleep, turning onto his side.

"Uh... yeah, I'll just go now." The ghost disappeared.

Somehow, the morning came without any casualties. Brock, May and Max woke up early to at least one surprise. Ash had actually woken up before them. A quick search of the upper and lower floor revealed that he was not so easy to find. That just left the attic, though they had no idea why he would even go up there. They all went up to take a look and were surprised to find him sitting at the typewriter and typing away.

"Ash, what are you doing?" May asked in astonishment.

"What are you typing?" Max picked up a sheet of paper. "All work and no Pokémon battles make Ash go crazy? You just typed the same thing over and over."

"Um... Ash..." Brock said nervously. "Maybe you should stop typing now."

"Can't... must go insane... kill..." Ash suddenly snapped awake and blinked, looking around at everyone. "Hey, guys... why are we up here?" May, Brock and Max stared at him incredulously. "Is it time for breakfast yet? I'm hungry."

"Yeah, I'll just... go make breakfast," Brock said, sweating and backing away. "I'll even make your favourite breakfast... pancakes, right?" He tore off down the ladder as fast as he could.

"I'm going to watch Brock cook," Max said with an awkward smile, quickly following after him.

"Ahh... my back aches..." Ash groaned, standing up and stretching his arms. "I don't remember leaving my bed. I guess I must have sleepwalked up here." He picked up a piece of paper and stared at it. "Wow, did I really write all this?"

"Um, Ash..." May put her hands behind her back, shuffling her feet. "I just wanted to say I was sorry about the things I said last night. I kept accusing you of doing things when you really didn't and it wasn't really fair of me to do that."

"That's okay, May, I forgive you," Ash replied. "Anyway, it's not like we expected crazy killers and insane ghosts to disrupt our peace."

"I'm definitely not forgetting that night anytime soon," May said with a wry smile. "Aunt Gladys may be dead, but I'm still pretty mad at her for having us stay in this weird house. At least we're going to get some money for doing this."

"What should we do with the crazy psychopaths?" Ash wondered as the two came down the ladder. "Should we let them go?"

"That doesn't sound safe. We could contact the police instead..." May paused, thinking about Officer Jenny. "Never mind." Knowing Officer Jenny, she would just end up getting murdered and the killers would be free to run amok and go after them. They wanted to avoid that.

"Eh, we'll decide on it before we leave," Ash said dismissively. He wasn't too concerned about the fates of people who tried to kill them.

After a nice breakfast of pancakes, everyone got ready and patiently waited for the solicitor to arrive. Nobody really felt like checking the basement and finding out if Jeremy and his father were feeling any less psychotic yet. Eventually, the doorbell rang and they rushed to the front door, May beating everyone else and eagerly opening it.

"You're alive?" The solicitor recoiled in shock, then shook himself and smiled awkwardly. "Of course you're alive, why wouldn't you be? Anyway, here's the money." He fished some money out of his pocket and hastily gave it to May. "Leave the house unlocked if you like. If we're lucky, squatters will come in, have wild parties and end up burning the entire darn place down."

May immediately started counting the money, smiling in excitement. Once she'd finished counting though, her face fell. "Um, I thought we were inheriting her entire fortune?" she asked, giving the solicitor a suspicious look. "This is only one thousand Pokédollars!"

"Yeah, well, your Aunt Gladys was an alcoholic and a gambler so she honestly didn't have much money left before she died," replied the solicitor. "In fact I think she did this whole thing on purpose. Who would let children stay in a house full of ghosts?"

"I knew something was fishy about this whole thing," Brock said, as May and Max stared in open mouthed horror at the solicitor. "Well, look on the bright side, we... er, did anything good happen while we were staying here?"

"Well, we had fun, right?" Ash asked. Brock, Max, May and Pikachu all shot him incredulous stares. "What? I thought it was kind of exciting. How often do we get to take down crazy psychopaths and see ghosts? Sure, it was a little dangerous, but..." He broke off as he realised everyone was now looking disturbed. "Of course Pokémon battles are exciting too and much safer. Think I'll try challenging a random person or two on the way back."

"I'm out of here," the solicitor announced, running off down the path yet again.

"I can't believe Aunt Gladys set us up like this," Max said, staring at his feet. "I thought she was nice. She gave me candy. I remember, it was this really nice toffee. It made my teeth stick together for hours and I couldn't talk." He paused, as if realising something. "Oh."

"Never mind, Max." May patted his back sympathetically. "We can go figure out what to spend a thousand Pokédollars on. This is going to be really tough. I guess we can forget about the restaurants."

The four of them walked away down the path, quite glad to leave the house behind. They had completely forgotten about Jeremy and his father. Luckily for the two psychopaths, the ghosts got tired of having guests at their basement parties and let them out. However, after what they had been through, they no longer felt like killing and quietly returned to Fallarbor Town.


End file.
